The Providence Journal has reactions from victims of former priest, Howard White. White’s removal from the priesthood was announced earlier this week:
[Bishop] Scanlan’s action brought a measure of comfort to three of White’s accusers. They include a former St. George’s student, who alleges that White raped and sexually molested him in Boston, Canada and West Virginia, starting when the student was barely 15.
“I’m heartened and feel enormous validation that thus far a measure of justice has been dealt within the Episcopal Church, and I look forward to additional justice being meted by broader authorities,” he said in a phone interview Tuesday.
“I’m ecstatic,” said Forrest Parker Jr., who alleges that White raped and sexually molested him in the 1980s after county social services placed him with White at the Grace Church in the Mountains rectory in Waynesville, North Carolina, in the mid 1980s.
Parker fled from White and ran to live on the streets, he said. Waynesville police are investigating Parker’s allegations and another by a woman who says White molested her at the same church when she was 15.
According to the article, White faces possible criminal charges in North Carolina and Massachusetts. White has not been charged with a crime in Rhode Island due to the statute of limitations. A civil complaint against White and the Diocese of West Virginia was dismissed due to the statute of limitations in that state.